World View & Market Commentary. Forest first; Trees second. Focused on Real & Knowable facts that filter through the "experts" fluff and media hyperbole. Where we've been, what the future may hold and developing a better way forward.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Well, it appears that first quarter growth was much slower than the bulls thought, with the GDP coming in at -6.1%. Economists were expecting a drop of 4.7%. Fourth quarter ’08 growth’s final revision put it slightly weaker at -6.3%.

Futures are still up as they have been ramping all night long in what has become typical gap fashion. In fact, as of late almost all the real action has come overnight, and I’m pretty sure that not a healthy indication. Note that the overnight uptrendline was just broken and the /ES is at about 858:

I’m also fairly certain that the futures would have sold the GDP report harder except for the fact that Benny and the boys get another chance to manipulate the markets with their FOMC meeting announcement which should occur about 11:15 Pacific, 2:15 Eastern. I will not be at all surprised if they announce a larger pool of “money” for their circle jerk QE/destroy America plan.

The dollar is weaker this morning and bonds, which fell on their rear yesterday, are only slightly up this morning. Several more bond auctions occur today as they attempt to finance their folly and fight the math which always wins in the end.

MBA purchase applications fell slightly last week, dropping by .6%.

And then there’s the swine flu and the fact that America has now seen its first death from it, a 2 year old boy in Texas. Texas now has 64 confirmed cases and the last I heard last night CNN was reporting that Mexicans blame close to 160 deaths on the virus. There’s a lot to this story and I’ll have more later.

And we’re learning that 6 of the 19 “stress tested” banks will require addition capital. This is such a joke, I can’t even stand to write about it. The central bankers all sit around and dream up schemes to hide assets, fool the American public, and rob the taxpayers of this nation with the complicit help of our own damn politicians. It’s disgusting, criminal, and certainly not what our founding fathers envisioned, it is exactly what they feared.

At any rate, we’ll have to see what fun and games Benny and the Jets have in store for us with the FOMC…